loftier majesty and in more fit proportions, as generation after generation appears on the stage of life.

But what are labors, what the execution of the artist, compared with that of the man, who takes the soul as it comes from the hand of its God, with powers and capacities to be evolved by education, which assimilate it to the Deity himself, and qualify it for rising in the scale of being almost immeasurably high? quite immeasurably high, our powers of calculation being the rule of mea

surement.

Behold the workmanship of the teacher! His material is no rude, earthly substance merely, to be moulded into form by the chisel or made to glow with life by the pencil. It is of a higher order of being: it is mind, that ethereal substance, that substratum of intellect, affections and will, which is like nothing else on earth, and claims kindred with the skies; which, when material forms decay, still lives on, unimpaired, yea, improved ; and which, when worlds and systems of worlds shall have been dis-solved by the breath of the Almighty, will still be glowing in the brightness of immortality.

But this immortal spark of being comes not alone into the teacher's hands. He finds it embodied, incarnated.. It is not spirit etherealized and separated from matter, but in close intimacy with it,-united to that which is mortal and carnal. Here, then, is a complex being— mortality and immortality-life and death-soaring loftiness and humbling littleness-an ally at once of earth and heaven.

And what, now, is the teacher's office? What is he to do with the material furnished to his hand? There is the body; that is to be properly developed, or the living

principle within will materially suffer. Although this bas a life of its own, independent of the body, yet are its living activity and its destiny here so intimately connected with the fleshy tenement, that the character of its operations depends much on its physical condition. If the body be strong, cæteris paribus, the manifestations of the mind will be strong; if frail, they must be feeble and the more forceful the mind independently, the more restricted must be its operations in a sickly frame. You might as well calculate on the safe working of a powerful steam engine in a pigmy boat you might as reasonably turn the ocean's wave upon the play-boy's mill-wheel and expect it to keep its place and perform its revolutions, as look for the regular and healthful play of the organisms of the body, when enfeebled by luxurious training, and yet acted on by the powerful force of a mighty intellect. No! the giant mind needs gigantic instruments of motion and action; and unless these are furnished, it will soon lash to atoms the poor frail tabernacle in which it is imprisoned. Physical education, then, is all important, yet too much neglected. Even this portion of the teacher's material is nobler far than that which the hand of the artist moulds, and demands a more skilful touch in order to secure an exquisite development.. Every public instructer should be provided with suitable appliances for the invigoration of the muscular and nervous systems. Without these he cannot well fulfil the responsibility assumed. Through the body the mind sees, hears, smells, tastes, feels, talks, and moves. How important, then, that this body possess its organisms in as much perfection as possible!

But the mind is nobler still and this comes under the

tuition of the teacher. God and the community give it to him to work upon and fit for its designs and destiny. How is his office here magnified in comparison with that of others? What is the sculptor's or the painter's art compared with his? He has to mould an intellect, not to fashion a stone. He has to guide affections, not the

pencil on the canvass. He has to stimulate conscience, and give energy to will, not merely to make the eye speak in the group of figures, or the graces sit enchantingly on the marble bust. His is not the office to spend his living energies and the fire of his genius on inanimate matter, which must at last fade away and die: but to give vigor and beauty to the animated form of man, and to educate an immortal nature for the everlasting development, and eternally appropriate action of all its powers in a state of existence suited to its noble qualities, and on a field of operation circumscribed by no limits but those of immensity, and presenting themes of contemplation and subjects of investigation forever exhaustless, and tending to sublimate the soul beyond the possibility of present conception.

Behold that infant child! originally more helpless than the merest insect or the kitten that plays at its feet. Its power of motion is but very slowly developed. But its muscles gradually grow, it assumes the fit proportions of humanity. Its eye brightens : its hearing becomes acute its sense of touch exquisite: it drinks in pleasure from the fragrance of the flower; it stands erect at length, and walks; its tongue is loosed and it articulates sounds. Meanwhile, its sensibilities are developing themselves, its warm affections are clinging to their objects, its lower intellectual exercises are manifested, its

will exerts its prerogative and tries to proclaim its dominion over all. This is the little creature placed in the hands of the teacher. And what is his work? Oh, it is noble, glorious, godlike. He takes this gem of immortality, and his aim and his duty is to train it up to a proper appreciation of its powers, and a becoming fitness for that interminable existence which lies before it, and which ought to occupy its first and deepest thoughts. He cultivates its physical system, imparts strength of muscle, tension of nerve, agility of motion, acuteness of sense. Thus he educates the mortal part of his trust. But his highest purpose is properly to educate the immortal. To this end, he communicates a knowledge of letters, opens out gradually before him the book of Nature and the literature of the world; he disciplines his mind and teaches him how to gather knowledge from every useful source; he endeavors to impart quickness and retentiveness of memory, to cultivate a refined and well regulated imagination, to task, and thus to give vigor to his reasoning powers. He points out the appropriate objects for the several affections and the proper exercise of the passions; he gives lessons to conscience derived from the pure fountain of God's own revelation, and teaches him to subject his own will to the Highest Will. He instructs him in the various sciences, and thus displays before him worlds of wondrous interest, and invests him with sources and means of pure enjoyment. He trains him for the sweet sympathies of social life; and unfolds before him the high behests of duty-duty to himself, his fellow-creatures, his family, his God. Under such a tuition, behold the helpless infant grown to manhood's prime, a body well developed, strong and ac

tive; a mind symmetrically unfolded and powers of intellection closely allied to those of the spirits in celestial spheres. He is become a husband and a father; and in these, and all the other relations of life, he performs well his part. Above all, he is a Christian, with well trained! affections and a tender conscience, supremely loving God, maintaining a constant warfare with the world, the flesh, and the devil; growing up into the stature of at perfect man in Christ, and anticipating the fullness of joy and pleasure forevermore which are at God's right hand. The time of his departure at length arrives; he has fought the good fight, he has finished his course, and he goes to obtain his crown and to attune his harp, and forever to dwell on the hills of light and love, where angels gather immortality. Oh what a transit; from the dependent helplessness of infancy to the glory of a seraph: from mind scarcely manifested, to mind ranging over the immensity of Jehovah's empire, and rising in the loftiest exercises of reason and affection! And how much has the faithful teacher had to do in fitting him for the blissful mansion in the skies!

And is not his office, then, dignified? If the objects with which one is conversant; if the materials wrought upon by his powers; if the aims one has; if the results obtained; if all these give dignity to the individual; then is the office of the teacher dignified.

His office is dignified, moreover, by the men of past ages who have filled it. Witness Confucius, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Seneca, Milton and others, whose names still live, and whose laurels will never wither. These men felt, that to educate mind, to unfold its powers and capacities, to qualify the man for his duty and